Friday, February 11, 2011

So here is the big boot that Nelson painted off the red background study from my last post. There are no shadows to ground it but the leather is remarkable. The painting is six foot long.

This is the boot with the red background. It was a real challenge for Nelson, he just couldn't get a deep enough red to satisfy him. I loved it, even serious art can have an element of fun and red is a great color. I always say it's the only "true color". The kids gave mixed reviews and Nelson was so so. He sat on it for a week and decided the red just wasn't right so he went with a dark background.

I have to admit the background really lets you focus on the leather which is some of the best he has ever painted. The ground shadows are there but the photograph doesn't show them well.

About Me

Born and raised in Tempe, Arizona, Nelson studied to be an architect earning a degree from Arizona State University. After practicing for 15 years, during which time he owned a successful firm and won numerous awards, Nelson made the pivotal decision to leave the field in 1990 to pursue his dream of becoming a full-time artist. Nelson credits his life-long love of both art and math with his dual-career path of architecture and fine art. His mother, a painter herself, was his earliest influence. Years later he resumed watercolor classes, this time with a higher degree of dedication and more realistic goals. It was during this phase of training when Nelson developed his signature style, which he credits most to the principle of “gestalt.”He wanted to be a full-time artist but to justify a career change he knew he needed to sell some art. He got his art represented by several Scottsdale galleries by showing his work door-to-door. Within two weeks, two of his paintings sold. Since then, some of the leading galleries in the U.S. have sought to represent his work, recognizing his unique combination of incredible detail and big, bold and graphic images.